Greg KH, Linux kernel developer delivered a keynote in the Linux plumbing conference about the health of the ecosystem. His message was essentially that distributions that don't contribute to the ecosystem have to rely on the whims of others which is unhealthy for them. Here is an introduction the development model and some interesting statistics about the Linux kernel code. Update by TH: Rebuttals are appearing all over the web, like this one by Canonical's Matt Zimmerman ("He's refuting a claim which has, quite simply, never been made. [...] When this sort of thing happens on mailing lists, it's called trolling."), or this one by another Canonical employee, Dustin Kirkland.

"Mark Shuttleworth, with his playboy image and willingness to piss people off, is on his way to being Linuxï¿½Â¢ï¿½â¬Âs Steve Jobs. This is a good thing, as Linux has no pretty faces in the press (apologies to RMS, LBT, ESR and BP)."

Wow, dunno where that came from, but am I to understand that whoever wrote it figures Steve Jobs is a pretty face?!